Flexible sheet material having a decorative design thereon



Oct. 25, 1955 J. v. HAsTlNGs u1, ET AL 2,721,817

FLEXIBLE SHEET MATERIAL HAVING A DECORATIVE DESIGN THEREON FZG- 2- Original Filed Jan., 24, 19501;!6- 7- u! um A TTORNE YS United States Patent C) FLEXIBLE SHEET MATERIAL HAVING A DECORATIVE DESIGN THEREON John V. Hastings III, Gladwyne, and Andrew A. Schoenberg, Philadelphia, Pa.

Original application January 24, 1950, Serial No. 140,197,

now Patent No. 2,644,262, dated July 7, 1953. Divided aud this application February 2, 1953, Serial No. 334,491

1 Claim. (Cl. 154-47) This invention relates to a llexible sheet material having a decorative design thereon, and particularly to pliable materials such as suede leather, Lastex, satin, jersey, crepe and the like having decorative designs in contrasting colors. Articles of the character here involved are preferably manufactured in accordance with the process described in our copending application Serial No. 140,197, led January 24, 1950, now U. S. Patent No. 2,644,262, of which this application is a division.

Heretofore the application of colored patterns to pliable materials has been carried out by brushing or spraying the coloring material through a stencil which is placed over the material.

because of the tendency of colored patterns so applied to work free of the surface as the pliable material is used. Moreover, in the case of materials having irregular surfaces such as suede leather and most fabrics there are .present at the surface thereof a multiplicity of very fine projections or irregularities. In the case` of fabrics, whether woven, knitted or netted, these projections and irregularities are due to the overlapping and intersec- However, the processes known to y .the art have been unsatisfactory for most purp'oses largely ice Fig. 5 is an enlarged plan view of a portion of the finished product of Fig. 4.

Fig. 6 is a plan view of an alternate form of the invention showing a piece of pliable material, to which a decorative design is to be applied, with a lace pattern spread over its surface.

Fig. 7 is a fragmentary longitudinal enlarged sectional view with a pressure element shown above in elevation.

Fig. 8 is a corresponding longitudinal sectional view showing the elements of Fig. 7 after the application of pressure.

Fig. 9 is a longitudinal sectional View of the finished product.

The pliable materials in accordance with this invention are preferably made in accordance with the process illustrated in Figs. l-S of the drawings. In this process a piece of pliable material 10 is selectedv and spread out on a ilat surface. A stencil 11 is then spread over this material as shown in Fig. l. This pattern preferably consists of a relatively thin, finely formed fabric of lace or the like having open spaces separated merely by threads.

ln a separate operation the `combination to be used in applying the color to the pliable material through the pattern is prepared. This is accomplished by selecting a suitable support material 12 in the form of a sheet of glassine paper or regenerated cellulose and applying a suitable colored adhesive to one surface thereof. A re- Vleasable material 13 such as beeswax or resins which are fusible under pressure may be applied to the support prior to the application of the colored adhesive but this step is not essential. However, where a release layer is f not used the support must be moistened as hereinafter tion of the threads `and yarn making up the fabric. i, These irregularities or projections present a surface which resists the uniform application of color. The result is that attempts to form patterns in color on such materials using the processes known to the art have not given practical results because of p'oor adhesion of the color and a pronounced tendency to give a blurred outline, particularly where the stencil is cut to include relatively fine lines. Moreover, the patterns thus formed have failed to remain attached under the ilexing influence of the material.

Accordingly it is an object of the present invention to provide a pliable material having a decorative design applied thereto.

A further object is to provide a pliable material of the character indicated wherein the decorative design is strongly bonded to the irregular surface of the pliable material by means of an adhesive which is either colored or which carries with it on one side a colored element such as thin metallic lm for example. A still further object is to provide a pliable material of this kind which has a colored design such as lace for example.

The present invention is described hereinafter in detail, reference being had to the accompanying drawings in which:

Fig. l is a plan view showing a piece of pliable material, to which a decorative design is to be applied, on which there is spread a lace stencil.

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary longitudinal substantially enlarged sectional view with a pressure element shown above in elevation.

Fig. 3 is a corresponding longitudinal sectional view showing the elements of Fig. 2 after the application of pressure.

Fig. 4 is a longitudinal sectional view showing the nished product.

noted at the time it is removed from the adhesive. The adhesive 14 is applied to the support sheet 12 by applying a uniform thin layer of adhesive to the support by means of a doctor blade or the like or by spraying in successive thin layers. Each layer is permitted to set sufficiently to acquire a degree of rmness and successive layers are applied in the same way. This procedure is repeated until six successive layers of adhesive have been applied. The nal layer is permitted to acquire a partial set prior to application of the adhesive combination to the pliable material I0 as hereinafter described in detail. It is also possible to apply the adhesive by means of a roller coating machine which is adjusted to give the desired thickness of adhesive coating in a single application.

The combination comprising the support 12 and its adhesive coating is then placed upon the pattern 11 overlying the pliable material 10. The partially set adhesive side of the combination is placed on the stencil 11 and pressure is applied from above by means of the pressure element 15. This pressure should be of the order of about 1000 pounds per square inch and is applied for a period of from about 5 seconds to about 10 seconds thus forcing the adhesive through the stencil openings and into contact with the pliable material 10. The pressure element 15 is then withdrawn and the support material 12 is stripped from the adhesive which is now firmly attached to the pliable material lil. Where a release material is not used the back of the support is thoroughly wetted with water and is then stripped from the adhesive while still moist. As shown in Fig. 3, the application of pressure forces the adhesive 14 through the openings of the stencil 11 into contact with the material 10. After removal of the support material 12, the adhesive is left firmly affixed to the pliable material 10 in the areas underlying the openings in the stencil 11. The stencil is then removed leaving a colored design on a background corresponding to the original color of the material 10. This color may be selected as desired to provide a contrast in the finished piece. As shown in Fig. 5, colored adhesive portions 16 are clearly separated from each other with the background color 17 of the material 10 visible between the colored adhesive portions.

In the embodiment of the invention shown in Figs. 6 to 9 inclusive, the characteristic color effect of a metal seen against a contrasting background is obtained. In this embodiment of the invention a lace stencil 21 is spread over a pliable material 20. A combination is then formed comprising a support material consisting of glassine paper or a regenerated cellulose 22, a releasable material 23, a metallic ilm layer 24 and an adhesive 25. The releasable layer 23 consists of a substance such as beeswax or a resin fusible under pressure. The metallic film 24 is a very thin layer which may be deposited on a releasable layer by cathodic deposition in ways well known to the art. A plurality of successive layers of adhesive is then applied to the metallic layer. The building up of the successive layers of adhesive is accomplished following the process set forth in connection with the description relating to Figs. 1 to 5 or may be applied in a single layer with a roller coating machine. The cornbination comprising the support 22 and its layers of releasable material, metallic film and adhesive coating is then placed, adhesive side down, over the lace stencil 21 and pressure is applied from above by means of pressure element 26. After the application of a pressure of about 1000 pounds per square inch for from about seconds to about seconds, the pressure element 26 is withdrawn leaving the formation shown in Fig. 8. The support material 22 is then stripped away leaving a metallic film aixed to the pliable material 20 in the areas corresponding to the openings of the pattern 21. The pattern is then removed leaving the formation shown in Fig. 9. The areas where adhesion takes place thus present a metallic coloration which may be of gold, silver or any suitable metal. Along the lines underlying the individual threads of pattern 21 there is no application either of adhesive or metallic film and consequently the original color of the pliable material 20, which may be black or any preferred color, is visible to provide a contrast with the metallic film areas.

The adhesive material used in the practice of both embodiments of the present invention as above described is a dispersion made up of synthetic rubber and phenolic resin. One such dispersion that has provided particularly good results is a mixture in substantially equal parts of butadiene acrylonitrile and phenol formaldehyde resin. To this mixture the usual solvents and plasticizers are added.

The article of manufacture resulting from the practice of the process of the present invention consists of a liexible base of leather or fabric or the like having an irregular surface to which there is firmly affixed a flexible, decorative coating. The exible base is permeable by the coating because of its irregular surface and hence the decorative coating is partially located in the liexible base and is firmly aflixed thereto by the penetrant and adhesive characteristics of the binder when subjected to pressure.

It is to be understood that this invention, herewith shown and described, is to be taken as a preferred example of the same, and that various changes in the shape, size and arrangement of the parts utilized therein may be resorted to without departing from the spirit of the invention or the scope of the claim. For instance, in addition to application to leathers having irregular surfaces, the present invention as defined in the claim may be used in the forming of patterns on various fabrics lwhether woven, knitted, netted, extruded, or formed on a forming machine or woven on a loom out of natural or synthetic yarn, whether said loom is a ribbon, pile fabric, narrow or broad.

Having thus described our invention, we claim:

A new article of manufacture having a decorative design thereon comprising a thin pliable sheet of leather having an exposed back surface and an irregular front surface, a thin lace network of tiexible elastic adhesive adherent to said front surface, and a lace network of metallic film united by said lace network of elastic adhesive to said iiexible sheet, said adhesive comprising a combination of phenolic resin and synthetic rubber, portions of the front surface area of said pliable sheet intermediate said network being exposed.

References Cited in the tile of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,923,512 Stein Aug. 22, 1933 2,029,377 Kaplan Feb. 4, 1936 2,033,066 Frohlich Mar. 3, 1936 2,043,809 Papp June 9, 1936 2,511,816 Shaw June 13, 1950 2,575,265 Feidler et al Nov. 13, 1951 2,644,262 Schoenberg et al. July 7, 1953 

